Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 25-year-old Joanna Gollnau of Buffalo has been arraigned before Buffalo City Court Judge Diane Wray on one count of Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree, a Class “D” felony, and one count of Reckless Driving, an unclassified misdemeanor.
It is alleged that on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, at approximately 8:45 p.m., the defendant recklessly drove a pickup truck through Niagara Square during a demonstration in front of City Hall. She is accused of hitting a woman who was seated on a bicycle. The bicyclist was taken to the hospital to be treated for her injuries.
Gollnau is scheduled to return on Monday, January 4, 2021 at 9:30 a.m. for further proceedings. She was released on her own recognizance.
If convicted on all charges, Gollnau faces a maximum of 7 years in prison.
As Donald Trump sits in criminal court facing 34 felony charges for purported financial records violations stemming from an attempt to bury a story about an alleged affair with an adult film actress, he may also face a separate prosecutor seizing his real estate holdings, according to a legal expert.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner published a "Justice Matters" video on Saturday in which he covers a recent filing by New York A.G. Letitia James, who sued Trump in a civil case for business fraud based on his chronic exaggeration of assets to get better loan terms. Specifically, the ex-prosecutor noted how James recently urged state Judge Arthur Engoron to reject the $175 million bond that Trump has posted in his civil fraud case, citing trustworthiness and competency concerns with the institution that agreed to bond him.
For Kirschner, this tells us a good amount about what might happen in the future as these cases move forward.
Kirschner first covers the three reasons James gives for doubting the validity of the bond, including that the company purportedly doesn't have the financial backing to provide such a large bond, and then goes on to explain what will happen if the judge agrees with her and Trump does nothing to cure the problem.
"At this rate, it looks like there is a fair chance that while Donald Trump is in that New York courtroom being prosecuted for 34 felony crimes, Attorney General Tish James might be up the street seizing Trump's properties," he said. "And I'm OK with that."
Reacting to an angry rant delivered by Donald Trump when he showed up for court on Friday morning, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig noted the former president looked "frazzled," which could be a clue to prosecutors that they are getting to him after only three days in court.
Speaking with host Kate Bolduan after the former president had already been admitted into the courtroom, where he will tried on 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, Honig noted that Trump seemed agitated as he addressed the press and listed off a series of grievances.
"Elie, from just watching how Donald Trump was in speaking to reporters before he went in, he was — he was definitely at least projecting that he was angry and frustrated, if he wasn't actually angry and frustrated," CNN's Bolduan prompted her colleague. "If you're a prosecutor and you're watching him act the way he did this morning, what do you think? Do you already think you are winning?"
"So he definitely looked frazzled," the legal analyst replied and then added, "I think that's a good word we can use for this."
"If he's frazzled now, just wait until week three because I think what Donald Trump is learning is that it is enormously stressful to be on trial," he continued. "I've never even had, of course, the experience of being the defendant, I've just done it as a lawyer."
"It's incredibly stressful," he elaborated. "It's long days, it's excruciating. It can be boring. We saw him nodding off during jury selection and it will get to him.
"And I think, if I'm the prosecutor — I'm not so into the head games in the psychology of it all — but I do think I would see someone who's perhaps fraying a bit at the edges and, who knows, that may lead to poor strategic decisions by Donald Trump or other behavior that could be self-destructive."
